Immuno Valley Executive Board

Dr. René Aerts retired from Merck/MSD Animal Health in 2013 where he had been a member of the Executive Committee since 2008. He joined Intervet International BV in 1990 as Head of Antibiotics R&D and moved on to Head of Global Regulatory Affairs then Head of R&D The Netherlands and Head of Manufacturing Operations The Netherlands. After the merger of Intervet with Schering Plough Animal Health he took the position as Global Head Vaccine Research in the Executive Committee of Intervet-Schering Plough AH and retained that position after Merck acquired Schering Plough.

Since 2013 René advises and supports global top tier Animal Health companies in the areas of R&D and Manufacturing strategy and mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to joining Intervet Int., René worked at the RIKILT State Quality Institute for Agricultural Products (Wageningen, The Netherlands) as Head of Veterinary Drugs and at DSM-Andeno (Venlo, The Netherlands). René holds a Master degree in Organic- and Pharmaco-Chemistry from the Radboud University in Nijmegen and a PhD in Bioanalytical Chemistry from the Free University of Amsterdam. He is the founder of RA-Consultancy BV and holds non-executive and Advisory Board positions at CMC Biologics (Copenhagen, Denmark), The Jenner Institute (University of Oxford, UK), ImmunoValley (Utrecht, The Netherlands) and Schothorst Feed Research BV (Lelystad, The Netherlands).

Jan Brink

Jan Brink is Director at Almare Consultancy BV and Paarse Kroko B.V. and a member of the Supervisory Board of amongst others the MKB Fund Drenthe, de Maan Groep, Van Reekum Investment Fund BV. He is a former partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

And before that he was President STAK Pepscan Holding N.V., President cooperative SMEs in Urk Fish Capital, Secretary / Treasurer Foundation SME Pact, The Netherlands to promote internationalization in SMEs, - Monitoring of the Aanjager BV, participation fund in companies, Member of the Advisory Board entrepreneurs program "Max" by Omroep Flevoland, President New Business Flevoland / Flevoland Direct Operating aid to encourage external expertise for companies.

Wouter Dhert

Prof. Dr. Wouter Dhert is since December 2014 Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and full professor of translational musculoskeletal research at Utrecht University. From 2008 until 2014 he was full professor at the Dept. of Orthoapedics at the University Medical Center Utrecht and part-time professor at the faculty of Veterinary Medicine.He serves at several international committees/boards related to regenerative medicine and/or musculoskeletal research, such as the Tissue Engineering journal (executive editorial board), Netherlands Institute for Regenerative Medicine (NIRM) and the Anna Foundation.

Ludo Hellebrekers

Prof. Dr. Ludo Hellebrekers is director of the Wageningen Bioveterinary Research Institute, in Lelystad. Wageningen Bioveterinary Research is an independent research institute and national reference laboratory for several animal diseases. The institute performs bioveterinary and animal model research to safeguard animal and public health in the Netherlands.

Ludo Hellebrekers holds several relevant positions, he is chair of the Central Animal Testing Committee (Centrale Commissie Dierproeven, CCD), he is chair of the Supervisory Board of the University Practice for Large Animals (Universitaire Landbouwhuisdierenpraktijk, ULP) of the Farm Animal Health Department at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University. Ludo Hellebrekers is a member of the Council on Animal Affairs, an independent council of experts which offers the Dutch Minister for Agriculture solicited and unsolicited advice on complex, multidisciplinary issues relating to animal health and welfare. He is chair of the Supervisory Board of the Stichting Vereniging Kennisinstituut Mondzorg (Vereniging KiMo). From 2006-2014 he was chairman of the board of the Royal Netherlands Veterinary Association (KNMvD).

Dr. Ludo Hellebrekers studied veterinary medicine and worked at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, at Utrecht University, and from 2000-2015 was professor of Veterinary Anesthesiology at Utrecht University.